iExplore Tortuguero Extension (Trip #62644)

Tour Overview

Travel on the Tortuguero Canals, up through the area north of Limon, has been likened to a trip on the African Queen, or to floating dreamily down the Amazon. It is certainly one of the most wonderfully lyrical trips to be taken anywhere. As you float dreamily amidst the fragrance of white ginger blossoms, levender water hyacinths, and the llan llan flower, there is a tranquility that soothes all your cares away. Look around and you may catch occassional glimpses of sloths, crocodiles, and basking freshwater turtles. High in the exuberent vegetation, green macaws and multi-colored parrots squawk nosily, while howler monkeys shake the branches.

Day by Day Itinerary

Day 1: Tortuguero
Early today you will be picked up at your hotel for your trip to Tortuguero National Park. Enjoy a typical Costa Rican breakfast on the way as you pass through the cloud forests of Braulio Carrillo National Park and the banana plantations on the Caribbean slope before a two hour boat trip to Tortuguero.

The park--one of the most varied within the park system--has 11 ecological habitats, from high rainforest to herbaceous marsh communities. Fronting the sea is the seemingly endless expanse of beach. Behind that is a narrow lagoon, connected to the sea at one end and fed by a river at the other, which parallels the beach for its full 35-km length. Back of the lagoon is a coastal rainforest threaded by an infinite maze of serpentine channels and streams fed by rivers flowing from the central mountain ranges and by the torrential rains that fall in the area. On the periphery of the forest lies a complex of swamps.

In the afternoon you will visit the town of Tortuguero and the turtle museum (entrance fee is $1.00 per person, not included).
Overnight: Tortuguero

Day 2: Tortuguero
Today enjoy a jungle boat tour through the rainforested waterways of Tortuguero National Park. The rest of the day is at leisure.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Tortuguero

Day 3: Tortuguero- San Jose
After breakfast, take the boat to Cano Blanco dock and then continue on coach transportation to San Jose, stopping for lunch along the way.
Breakfast, Lunch
Overnight: San Jose

Day 4: San Jose- Depart
Today you will be driven to the airport for your flight home.